An Indiana woman who went missing in July was rescued Saturday after being caged, tied up, beaten, and repeatedly sexually assaulted by two acquaintances.
On Monday, prosecutors charged Ricky R. House Jr., 37, and Kendra Tooley, 44, with more than 10 criminal counts each in the case involving the Evansville, Ind. woman who went missing on July 9. The woman was rescued after Tooley’s ex-husband, Ronald Higgs, visited the couple’s mobile home and learned that the 30-year-old woman was being held against her will.
Higgs said that he was dumbfounded after Tooley told him:
“I’ve got a girl back here in a cage.”
According to court documents, the woman was an acquaintance of House and Tooley. She accepted a ride from House as she was walking along an Evansville street the night of July 9, agreeing to go to the couple’s trailer in the small community of Stewartsville. But when she tried to leave, House placed chloroform over her mouth and nose, causing her to lose consciousness.
Court documents reveal that the woman was bound to the bed and various other places in the trailer, kept in a wooden cage, and forced to have sex with both House and Tooley. She also was beaten with a belt.
When Higgs returned to the house the next day to take the woman away, House threatened to kill him. After a struggle, Higgs was able to get the woman — who had been secured by a rope attached to a dog collar around her neck — and flee the mobile home. When both Higgs and the victim reached his home, they called the police.
House and Tooley were arrested Sunday on preliminary charges of criminal confinement and rape.
SOURCE: USA Today | VIDEO SOURCE: News Inc.
